SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A $150 million baseball stadium plan won final legislative approval Monday, a major step toward luring the Montreal Expos to Oregon.

Final action came as the House, with no debate, voted 31-24 to approve an amended version of the bill that passed in the Senate late Saturday.

It now goes to Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who's a leading backer of the move to bring Major League Baseball to Oregon as a way to boost the state's ailing tourism economy.

With legislative action on Senate Bill 5 now completed, Portland officials were preparing for the next steps in their quest to bring a team to Oregon.

The hurdles include finding a team owner and a guarantor to back stadium bonds, crafting a Portland tax package to pay the remaining $200 million of the $350 million stadium price tag and picking a construction site.

Oregon is competing with Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia to get the Expos, a team major league baseball hopes to relocate next year.

The bill would pay for a new stadium using the income taxes of future team players and executives.

Oregon could be out of the hunt to lure the Monteal Expos as the Oregon Senate Friday voted down a measure to finance a major league baseball stadium. The measure was defeated by just four votes.

Senate approval has been the largest hurdle throughout the legislative session. The Oregon House passed the bill Wednesday and Gov. Ted Kulongoski said he would sign it if it got past the Senate.

After the Senate voted down the proposal 12-18, backers gave notice they may make a motion to reconsider the measure later.

Earlier this week, baseball supporters said they thought they had the needed 16 votes for Senate passage -- but they acknowleged it would be a close vote.

Senators debated the measure for about an hour late Friday morning before voting to defeat the funding plan, known as Senate Bill 5.

A graphic of a proposed baseball stadium that could be built near the Broadway Bridge in Portland. (KGW Graphic)
Oregon is competing with Washington, D.C. and northern Virginia to lure the Expos. Neither of the other two suitors has a stadium bill in place, but Oregon baseball supporters said if the bill failed so would the state's chances of getting the Expos. Major League Baseball has said it hopes to announce the Expos' new home by Labor Day.

Sen. Lenn Hannon, an Ashland Republican who vowed to defeat the proposal, said the state shouldn't help build a stadium, particularly for a team that is loosing money.

Major league baseball "is trying to dump a poor asset to the highest bidder," Hannon said. "Anyone who has the money to play a player $10 million a year has the money to build their own stadium."

The bill defeated by the Senate on Friday would have payed $150 million toward a new stadium, using the income taxes of future team players and executives. That money would have been bonded and backed by a "guarantor." That could be a rich person, a city government willing to back the bonds, or a combination of the two.

The guarantor had yet to be identified, and many Senators voting no Friday said that made them wary of how good an investment a major league team would be.

The rest of the $350 million stadium money would have come from a combination of private financing and other Portland-area taxes associated with the team. But the details of where that money would have come from were never defined.

Supporters had argued the baseball plan would provide jobs to Oregon's struggling economy.

"Three thousand team players come on down and find your job," said Rep. Donna Nelson, R-McMinnville, earlier this week when the House passed the bill. She was referring to the estimate that the stadium would require 1,500 construction workers over each of the next two years.

The Oregonian reported today that the Oregon Senate had through some switcheroo-type process allowed the stadium bill for Portland to come to a vote:

PORTLAND OREGONIAN, August 13, 2003

SALEM -- A plan to build a major league baseball stadium in Portland took a big step forward Tuesday when backers used a surprise political maneuver to shake loose a stalled $150 million funding bill.

The move, called a "gut and stuff," in which one bill is substituted for another that has made better progress, gives the stadium proposal perhaps its best shot yet for success.

Backers said they could have final legislative approval within a week and send the bill to Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who is expected to sign it. Once that happens, they said, chances of bringing the Montreal Expos to Portland as soon as next year shoot up dramatically.

"If we get this bill, we're very confident that we will get a team," said Kevin Campbell, the main lobbyist for the bill.

Two of the prime locations for the stadium are within three blocks of work, another is on the way home, and a fourth and fifth are 10-12 blocks the other direction. In other words, if the stadium passes and we get the team, work becomes much more palatable as I can blow off an afternoon for a baseball game.

If you live in Portland, I recommned visiting the Oregon Baseball Campaign and register your support. I just hope they don't change the name to the Beavers.